Matt Kenseth's spotter, Mike Calinoff, sports proof of Daytona 500 win
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FONTANA, Calif. – While Matt Kenseth's spotter has already gotten a tattoo to honor the Roush Fenway Racing team's victory in last weekend’s Daytona 500, don't expect the driver to follow suit.
While Kenseth spent the past week touring various cities as part of a post-victory media blitz, Mike Calinoff decided to mark the occasion in a different way - and one that Kenseth actually unintentionally encouraged.
Calinoff, who left Kenseth's team a few years ago but returned as Kenseth's spotter this season, celebrated the group's 2003 championship in the same way. But when that happened, he got a jump on the title - and the tattoo - which led to some good-natured ribbing Monday morning.
"I was kind of teasing Mike because I always tease him, but I was really teasing him because the week before we won the championship in ’03, which we were able to win a week early, actually, he went and got the championship tattoo put on his leg, and we were in victory lane celebrating the championship and he showed us he already had the tattoo," Kenseth said Friday at Auto Club Speedway. "So I asked him Monday if he got the tattoo put on yet before we won the race – if he really was a psychic. But I was just giving him a hard time about it, but it didn’t surprise me that he did it.”
Calinoff said that the $250, multicolored tattoo took two hours and was painful to get put on, but that he is glad that he did it.
"It was worth it,” he said. “I'd do it again tomorrow."
Calinoff admits that he could be the only spotter commemorating a big win in this way, but he doesn't regret it at all.
"They're probably not as crazy as I am to do something like that," he said. "You can always lose a ring, but you can't lose a tattoo. I've got it for life."
But will Kenseth join him in celebrating a win in this way? Not likely.
“No," he said when asked. "I’m not a tattoo guy."
